The Great Impersonation eBook

“You shall do exactly as you choose,”
he promised, as he took his leave.

So when the shooting party tramped into the hall that
afternoon, a little weary, but flushed with exercise
and the pleasure of the day’s sport, they found,
seated in a corner of the room, behind the great round
table upon which tea was set out, a rather pale but
extraordinarily childlike and fascinating woman, with
large, sweet eyes which seemed to be begging for their
protection and sympathy as she rose hesitatingly to
her feet. Dominey was by her side in a moment,
and his first few words of introduction brought every
one around her. She said very little, but what
she said was delightfully natural and gracious.

“It has been so kind of you,” she said
to Caroline, “to help my husband entertain his
guests. I am very much better, but I have been
ill for so long that I have forgotten a great many
things, and I should be a very poor hostess.
But I want to make tea for you, please, and I want
you all to tell me how many pheasants you have shot.”

Terniloff seated himself on the settee by her side.

“I am going to help you in this complicated
task,” he declared. “I am sure those
sugar tongs are too heavy for you to wield alone.”

She laughed at him gaily.

“But I am not really delicate at all,”
she assured him. “I have had a very bad
illness, but I am quite strong again.”

“Then I will find some other excuse for sitting
here,” he said. “I will tell you
all about the high pheasants your husband killed, and
about the woodcock he brought down after we had all
missed it.”

“I shall love to hear about that,” she
assented. “How much sugar, please, and
will you pass those hot muffins to the Princess?
And please touch that bell. I shall want more
hot water. I expect you are all very thirsty.
I am so glad to be here with you.”

CHAPTER XX

Arm in arm, Prince Terniloff and his host climbed
the snow-covered slope at the back of a long fir plantation,
towards the little beflagged sticks which indicated
their stand. There was not a human being in sight,
for the rest of the guns had chosen a steeper but somewhat
less circuitous route.

“Von Ragastein,” the Ambassador said,
“I am going to give myself the luxury of calling
you by your name. You know my one weakness, a
weakness which in my younger days very nearly drove
me out of diplomacy. I detest espionage in every
shape and form even where it is necessary. So
far as you are concerned, my young friend,”
he went on, “I think your position ridiculous.
I have sent a private despatch to Potsdam, in which
I have expressed that opinion.”

“So far,” Dominey remarked, “I have
not been overworked.”

“My dear young friend,” the Prince continued,
“you have not been overworked because there
has been no legitimate work for you to do. There
will be none. There could be no possible advantage
accruing from your labours here to compensate for
the very bad effect which the discovery of your true
name and position would have in the English Cabinet.”